Bloomington Leader

Thursday Takeaways: at Rutgers

In front of a road trip to Rutgers, Indiana football head coach Tom Allen talked to the media one final time prior to the Hoosiers meeting with the Scarlet Knight on Big Ten Network at Noon.

Below is a partial transcript of the Tom Allen press conference, while video of the full media sessions can be found near the top of this story at IUHoosiers.com or via IUHoosiers.com/watch.

Tom Allen | Head Coach

On Jaylin Lucas' development…

TA: I think it has created a lot more confidence in him in his execution of all the variety of things that a running back has to be able to do in our system. He has a lot of talent, as we can see. Obviously, he is young and is still working through all of that, but I think you see the intentional desire for him to be able to get more touches is real. That is what we are doing, and he makes the most of them.

We are going to continue to do that each and every week as he continues to grow and get more comfortable with his technique and fundamentals and execute those and all of the different things that he has to do at our running back position, as well as in the return game.

A very talented player that we have to continue to grow in our system.

On having a couple of guys that are dangerous with the ball in their hands in different ways…

TA: I think that any time that you have guys that are on the field that the defense has to worry about something unique or special that they can do is just to your advantage. Like you said, you have a guy like Donaven [McCulley] that has played quarterback and the different things that he can do with the ball in his hands.

Then, a guy like Jaylin [Lucas] that has tremendous quickness and burst and has short speed and long speed. That quickness piece gives him a chance to make plays in multiple ways of him touching the ball, whether that is in the backfield or on the perimeter or in the return game.

The more guys you have like that the better it is for you. I know defensively that makes issues for us, having to account for those types of guys. You basically have to know where they are at, where they are lined up on the field at all times. Sometimes you even make your calls adjusted to those things.

It definitely is a positive for us and we have to keep taking advantage of it.

On the offensive line rotation…

TA: It is an on-going thing; I think I was asked that initially about making some changes or how that would look going into last week. [I was asked] Would we keep it consistent, which we did, kept rotating in Joshua Sales Jr. and Kahlil Benson. That will continue.

I see their roles growing. I really like those guys and they've continued to get better each and every week. Obviously, they are young, they are both redshirt freshmen, but they are big athletes that care a whole bunch and work really hard.

Our offensive line has had another good week working together. They work extremely hard, which I love that about that group. Then, the way they pulled together through all of this. I think those two guys have really stuck out to me, so we are going to continue to grow them in their development. We want to be able to have multiple guys that we can rotate in there and I don't think we have settles on that best five yet. As we go through this here with coach [Rod] Carey, going into week two, but we are definitely moving forward with that and something we are always talking about.

On Josh Henderson's production on offense...

TA: He's just been, as you mentioned, those numbers don't lie, and he has been very productive when he has touched the ball. I think when you go through and we have different guys when you go through [the film] and we have different guys that you target and say, 'hey, we have to get these guys involved' and his name in in that group.

There is no question that we really love what he is able to do. As you mentioned, he is scoring with the ball in his hands as a running back. He can run the ball, he's catching football and scoring in that regard, and doing lots of things.

In the beginning, that versatility was his strength, and he has just been way more explosive and dynamic and productive than anyone could have forecast, which is awesome for him and for us. We definitely have another guy that you want to rotate in and get touches. With the tempo we play with, we are going to get a lot of snaps, so it gets those guys more opportunities. You see us playing with more two running back sets than we did in the beginning, so that is definitely on purpose to get your best players on the field.

That whole process continues as you continue to get guys in the fold: receivers, running backs, tight ends, and get them utilized. That is the challenge and the balance of being able to utilize the guys you've got. We do have several guys and we have mentioned several guys across the board here at several positions that have stepped up and Josh is one of them for sure. So proud of him and what a super person, great young man, dependable, tough guy, smart guy, that has earned the respect of his teammates pretty quickly.

Original source can be found here.